Tag Archives: Service

The question was a legitimate one. Here I was taking a group of 7th graders to the hospital to perform for pediatric patients; most of my students lived in poverty and had never performed volunteer work – and their experiences with the hospital were anything but positive.

“No, you won’t get sick and die. Honestly, they’re more at risk of getting sick from you than you are from them. These kids will all be fighting serious diseases – cancer, leukemia, stuff like that. Diseases you can’t catch by breathing the same air or being in the same room. But their bodies, because they are so sick, are at danger of catching colds or the flu from you guys, which is why the hospital won’t let someone come and perform if you’ve been sick recently.” I tried to both re-assure them they would be okay, and at the same time give them a glimpse of what these children were suffering from – and how severe it was.

In 1999 my sister, then 20 years old, died of leukemia. The Thanksgiving after her high school graduation she was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in her knee. After 18 months of intense chemo and multiple surgeries – including having a fake knee installed and 18” of her femur removed – she was doing well and it appeared the cancer was gone. Because of her age at diagnoses Erin was chosen as a recipient of a wish from the Starlight Foundation, so in the summer of 1999 we – my parents, her, and myself – all traveled to Alaska and spent 7 days on an Alaska cruise. Unbeknownst to me, that was the last time I would see her alive. After the cruise I returned to my home in Florida and she returned to her home outside Chicago; I had made plans to see her that Christmas, but, unfortunately, that didn’t materialize as I had expected. Instead of coming home for the holidays to go Christmas shopping and enjoy each other’s company, I came home and held the hand of her comatose body and sat next to her as she breathed her final breaths.

I remember visiting her in the hospital and seeing all the kids there, and how depressed they were, and I vowed to do whatever I could to try and bring a little happiness and joy into their lives. So when I became a music teacher I started partnering with an area hospital and would take my students to perform for the pediatric patients. Today was the day we were preparing to take this particular class for the first time. They were both nervous and excited – and so was I.

We spent the class reviewing policies and procedures given to us by the hospital; we talked about what it would mean for the patients; but, mostly, we practiced our songs. I knew that the learning they were going to have as a result of interacting with these patients was not something I could prepare them for. So I simply prepared them for what they were expecting – performing music.

The next day we arrived at the hospital and setup in a small auditorium. The kids were excited to be showing off what they learned, and you could feel the excitement as they chatted and rehearsed their numbers. As the patients began arriving, though, something changed. My students were used to performing for healthy people – and even though I had told them about what they would see, nothing could really prepare them for it. Kids being brought in in wheel chairs, some walked on crutches, and almost every single one was attached to an IV cart. Kids as young as 3 years old, some who had to be held because they were so sick. My students looked at me with eyes of concern and fear; I smiled at them, nodded, and simply said, “This is why we are here – it will be alright.”

By the time we started playing there were probably 75 patients in the auditorium. At first the students struggled to focus, but eventually they found their rhythm and started playing. As they played you could hear the patients clapping, and I knew from the looks on my kids faces that the patients behind me were smiling and having a good time.

After the first 20 minutes of performance we invited patients up to play with us. This was actually the heart of the volunteer program – we weren’t here just to perform for these patients, we were here to drum with them. My students knew this would happen, but they looked at me with concern in my eyes as some of the patients came up and had IVs sticking out of their hands. “Will they be okay, Mr. Feller?” “Will they get blood on my drum?” All sorts of questions – questions I had anticipated from previous visits; questions birthed in what was becoming true concern for their well-being rather than fear. My students were starting to build not just sympathy for these patients, but empathy with them.

“They’ll be fine,” I assured them, “The nurses are only picking kids who are healthy enough to come up here.” My students stood up from their chairs so that the patients could sit in them, and then they were assigned to teach the patient the part for the song we were doing. In class my kids hated – absolutely hated – sharing a drum; but here, something had changed in them. They were excited to share, and they willingly offered the drum to the patients. We started to drum – I taught the patterns, we modeled, and, within just a few minutes, we were making music, only this time the patients were making music instead of watching it.

An hour later we were back on the bus. The mood on the bus was different than on the ride over, though. What had been chatty excitement had turned to quiet contemplation. A couple of my students were crying. As we rode I stood at the front of the bus to debrief with my students what had just happened. One looked at me and said, “My Feller, where did they go after the performance?”

“What do you mean, where did they go?”

“After they left the auditorium, where did they go? Did they go back home? Did they go to another performance? What did they do?” the student asked.

Even with everything that had happened, my students still struggled to grasp the severity of it all. “They went back to their rooms,” I replied. “This is all they get to do – because they are so sick they spend all day, every day, for months in their rooms – laying in a bed, maybe watching TV or playing video games. But they only time they leave is for treatment, or to come see us.”

“You mean they spend 23 hours a day in their bed, and the one time they got to leave they came to see us?” one of them exclaimed?

“More or less,” I responded. “It’s not like they’re in prison, but because they’re so sick they can’t go out and interact much. So, yes, they spend almost all day in their room, and today they got to come do something special – and that something special was to play drums with you.”

“That’s so sad,” one of them commented. “I wish I could do more.”

“It is sad,” I said, “But you also need to realize how much you did do.”

At which point they started talking about the looks on the patients’ faces, how much fun they had playing with the patients, how cool it was to teach them songs. I sat down, thankful that my students were, for the briefest of moments, seeing beyond themselves, and experiencing something bigger than their own lives.

This is the third post reflecting on Kerry Wyatt Kent’s book Deeply Loved; if you’d like to read my first two reflections click here and here. Today I want to reflect on her thoughts regarding service.

Kent’s words were, to me, comforting to read. In some ways for me they almost “lowered the bar”, so to speak in regarding expectations for service, but the more I thought about it I realize how difficult what she’s writing about can be. I’ll just be honest and say that one of the things that drives me crazy is always being asked to serve – I get tired of hearing it. This isn’t directed at anyone in particular, so if you’re reading it and find yourself thinking, “He’s talking about me” rest assured I’m not. Here’s my gripe though – we seem to have defined “service” as only doing some sort of formal work for the church or some community organization. And while that’s important, service is so much more than that. I get tired of the implication that when I don’t serve in some “official” capacity I’m not serving.

I really believe that I have three main acts of service God has given me – so when someone asks me to serve in another capacity I have to weigh it against those priorities. I suppose it’s cliché to say it, but I take Colossians 3:23 literally – I don’t work for anyone but the Lord. And right now he’s given me three primary responsibilities: my family, my job, and my school. That means that I need to value family time with my wife and girls, I need to be devoted to my job and give it everything I have, and when it’s time to study I need to do that to the best of my ability. Some people have accused me of using that to avoid service, but I don’t think it is – I truly believe I’m focusing on what is important and serving where God has called me to serve. I will be the first to tell you I often struggle to give my wife and girls the best part of my time, which to me says I don’t need to add anything else to my plate right now.

But more than that, service is what we do every moment of every day. It’s letting someone get off the elevator before me, or opening the door as I walk into a building. Read what Kent writes:

“The simple things you do to care for your family, the work you do to provide for others, the way you treat customers or coworkers – all of this can be service to God, if you choose to see it that way.”

This is what I meant when I said that when I first read the chapter I felt like the bar got lowered – I was reminded that I need to view every act I do every day as service and I felt like I did that, so I felt vindicated against those who would try to convict me – here was a quote I could use to prove to them I was correct. But then I got to the application part of the chapter, and that’s when the bar got raised again:

“A simple way to practice service is to be open to interruptions, to give your attention to those who ask for it. When you are interrupted, decide that you will see that interruption as one that comes not from the person before you but from God.”

Well there went my feel-good moment! I hate to be interrupted. I’ll let the phone right (voicemail can answer) or close the office door to avoid interruptions. I’m ashamed to admit it, but too often I’ll put off something with the girls until I finish what I’m doing. I hate to be interrupted. And, worse than that, I let people know I don’t like to be interrupted. I don’t do it intentionally, but I recognize that my tone of voice and my body language communicate loud and clear that I’m not happy with the interruption. I’m selfish, and there’s no getting around it when it glares me in the face. Yet according to Kent, allowing for the interruption can be an act of service in itself.

Last week I posted a link on my Facebook wall that someone had shared with me about the “iPhone Mom”. I thought it was a great reminder to live in the moment, to literally allow for the interruption. And, in all honesty, when I read it I didn’t read it as written to “mom” but to “dad” (since I’m a dad) – I wasn’t trying to put down mothers or say anything negative about them. But boy was that a mistake – I quickly found out there was a massive back-lash against the author for writing what she wrote (you can read two of the responses here and here). I’m not here to support or defend the post, since obviously sharing the original one got me in trouble! But as I reflect back on it I think the reason it struck a chord with me was that author was trying to say is what Kent was saying in this application section – open yourself up to the interruption (at least that’s how I read it).

I have a long, long way to g(r)o(w) here, and I rest in the grace knowing that God is working in me, he is molding me into the person he wants me to be. This particular day made me re-evaluate (again) my priorities, and recognize where I needed to change and improve. And, with God’s grace, tomorrow will be better than today.